Defending Rights & Dissent (DRAD) is a national

not-for-profit A nonprofit organization (NPO) or non-profit organisation, also known as a non-business entity, not-for-profit organization, or nonprofit institution, is a legal entity organized and operated for a collective, public or social benefit, in co ...

advocacy organization in the United States, dedicated to defending civil liberties, exposing government repression, and protecting the right of

political dissent Political dissent is a dissatisfaction with or opposition to the policies of a governing body. Expressions of dissent may take forms from vocal disagreement to civil disobedience to the use of violence. and campaigning against the prosecution of national security whistleblowers.

History

NCA-HUAC

In 1960, the National Committee to Abolish the House Un-American Activities Committee (NCA-HUAC) formed as a group opposing the

House Un-American Activities Committee The House Committee on Un-American Activities (HCUA), popularly dubbed the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC), was an investigative committee of the United States House of Representatives, created in 1938 to investigate alleged disloy ...

(known popularly by the acronym "HUAC").

Frank Wilkinson Frank Wilkinson (August 16, 1914 – January 2, 2006) was an American civil liberties activist who served as Executive Director of the National Committee Against Repressive Legislation and the First Amendment Foundation (both predecessors to the ...

founded the group after he came under HUAC suspicion. In his capacity working for the Los Angeles City Housing Authority on a public housing project, Frank Wilkinson was asked by opposing lawyer Felix McGinnis to disclose which organizations he had previously been associated with. This was a thinly veiled attempt to determine whether Wilkinson belonged to the Communist Party of the United States of America (CPUSA) or one of CPUSA’s many

front groups A front organization is any entity set up by and controlled by another organization, such as intelligence agencies, organized crime groups, terrorist organizations, secret societies, banned organizations, religious or political groups, advocacy gro ...

. When subpoenaed by the House Un-American Activities Committee, Wilkinson again refused to answer questions regarding his organizational involvement “as a matter of conscience and personal responsibility.” Wilkinson was cited for contempt of Congress and sent to

jail A prison, also known as a jail, gaol (dated, standard English, Australian, and historically in Canada), penitentiary (American English and Canadian English), detention center (or detention centre outside the US), correction center, correc ...

in 1961, where he served a year-long sentence. NCA-HUAC, under Wilkinson’s leadership, began its advocacy against McCarthyism in 1960. The organization was an outgrowth of the Southern California Civil Liberties Union (a unit of the American Civil Liberties Union) and the Citizens Committee to Preserve American Freedoms. Unlike other civil liberties organizations, NCA-HUAC retained a single-minded focus on opposing HUAC. As an organizing tactic, NCA-HUAC created networks of local affiliates located across the United States. NCA-HUAC theorized that national groups alone could not turn the tide against HUAC; targeted local lobbying in individual congressional districts would be necessary. NCAHUAC FBI file

From the outset, NCA-HUAC was a target of FBI covert action and surveillance. In 1957, HUAC produced a report alleging that activist groups opposed to HUAC had been infiltrated by communists. Assistant FBI Director Fred J. Baumgardner believed that HUAC was a “buffer target” bulwarking the FBI against communist subversion. The FBI believed that communists were engaged in a secret war to destroy HUAC called “Operation Abolition.” Based on this belief, the FBI took steps to surveil and discredit critics of HUAC, including NCA-HUAC. FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover personally ordered an expedited investigation of NCA-HUAC as part of COINTELPRO. An FBI memo included directives to “expose, discredit, or disrupt” NCA-HUAC. The FBI conducted covert actions (then called “counterintelligence operations”) against NCA-HUAC. The ostensible purpose of investigation and covert action was to decide whether NCA-HUAC should be required to register as a communist front organization under the Internal Security Act of 1950. However, the Department of Justice repeatedly declined the FBI’s request to require NCA-HUAC to register as a communist front organization. Eventually,

J. Walter Yeagley J. Walter Yeagley (April 20, 1909April 28, 1990) was a judge of the District of Columbia Court of Appeals, the highest court for the District of Columbia. Biography Born in Angola, Indiana, Yeagley earned undergraduate and law degrees at the ...

at the Department of Justice instructed the FBI to stop submitting reports requesting that NCA-HUAC be required to register. The FBI routinely forwarded derogatory information about NCA-HUAC to HUAC and their allies. On at least twenty different occasions, the FBI forwarded HUAC material about NCA-HUAC, including information gathered from FBI informants. HUAC then forwarded its supporters dossiers on people connecting to NCA-HUAC, including material intended to be used to prepare for debates against NCA-HUAC members. The FBI obtained pre-publication copies of a pamphlet slated to be released by a member of NCA-HUAC entitled “HUAC: Bulwark of Segregation.” The FBI produced a chapter-by-chapter summary of the unpublished pamphlet to be distributed to field offices. Not all of the FBI’s information campaign against NCA-HUAC was conducted in-house. A “sizeable number” of records from the FBI Crime Records Division were leaked to media contacts, including reporters at the ''

Los Angeles Examiner The ''Los Angeles Examiner'' was a newspaper founded in 1903 by William Randolph Hearst in Los Angeles, California. The afternoon ''Los Angeles Herald-Express'' and the morning ''Los Angeles Examiner'', both of which had been publishing in the ...

'' and the

American Legion The American Legion, commonly known as the Legion, is a non-profit organization of U.S. war War is an intense armed conflict between states, governments, societies, or paramilitary groups such as mercenaries, insurgents, and militi ...

publication ''Firing Line''. HUAC submitted press releases based on FBI files to the newswire United Press International. When Wilkinson embarked on an NCA-HUAC speaking tour, he faced further FBI surveillance and covert action. The FBI ordered field agents to spy on Wilkinson’s speaking engagements, which they secretly photographed and videotaped. At Drake University in 1962, the FBI planted an audience member, who asked Wilkinson whether he was a communist. In another instance, the FBI stationed a “friendly newspaperman” at the entrance to the church where Wilkinson was speaking to ask for audience members’ names and addresses. This was an attempt to dissuade the public from attending the event. The FBI further attempted to interfere with the NCA-HUAC speaking tour by mailing newspaper clippings portraying NCA-HUAC in a negative light to venues planning to host Wilkinson. In several cases, this tactic led to the cancellation of planned speaking engagements. Ahead of Wilkinson’s media appearances, news stations received FBI-drafted questions about Wilkinson’s alleged communist ties. These questions were sometimes posed to Wilksonson on air. The FBI also recruited counterdemonstrators, including members of the American Nazi Party. In addition to interfering with Wilkinson’s speaking tour, the FBI also interfered with fundraising, creating problems for NCA-HUAC as a donor-dependent nonprofit organization. The FBI called on the Virginia Alcoholic Beverage Control Commission to raid a Democratic Party fundraiser because one of the candidates present was a sponsor of NCAHUAC."Supplementary Detailed Staff Reports on Intelligence Activities and the Rights of Americans - Church Committee Final Report, Book III." ''U.S. Senate Select Committee to Study Governmental Operations''. United States Senate. April 23, 1976. In January 1966, the office of the Chicago Committee to Defend the Bill of Rights was broken into. This black bag operation was authorized by FBI Assistant Director

William C. Sullivan William Cornelius Sullivan (May 12, 1912 – November 9, 1977) was a Federal Bureau of Investigation official who directed the agency's domestic intelligence operations from 1961 to 1971. Sullivan was forced out of the FBI at the end of Septembe ...

and undertaken for the purpose of photographing the lists of donors to the organization. NCA-HUAC also lobbied Congress. Here too, the FBI surveilled the organization and undertook covert actions disparaging the organization. Critics of HUAC in Congress were surveilled, and informants reported back to the FBI which congresspeople attended NCA-HUAC sponsored events. This amounted to an FBI effort to interfere with constitutionally-protected political advocacy. Information about the extent of FBI interference in the operations of NCA-HUAC came to light when the organization filed

Freedom of Information Act Freedom of Information Act may refer to the following legislations in different jurisdictions which mandate the national government to disclose certain data to the general public upon request: * Freedom of Information Act 1982, the Australian act * ...

(FOIA) requests following an armed break-in in 1969. When the news broke of burglaries associated with the Watergate scandal, members of NCA-HUAC grew suspicious that the break-in at their office was connected to the FBI. On the basis of advice from Watergate prosecutor Archibald Cox, NCA-HUAC asked the FBI about the break-in. The FBI response led Wilkinson to begin filing FOIA requests inquiring about FBI surveillance and covert action against his organization. The FOIA inquiry started a legal battle to retrieve over 132,000 pages of FBI material collected about Wilkinson and NCA-HUAC. The

Church Committee The Church Committee (formally the United States Senate Select Committee to Study Governmental Operations with Respect to Intelligence Activities) was a US Senate select committee in 1975 that investigated abuses by the Central Intelligence ...

investigation later found additional evidence of FBI misconduct in its actions against NCA-HUAC.

NCARL

NCA-HUAC changed its name to National Committee Against Repressive Legislation (NCARL) in the late 1960s, in order to expand the purview of the organization to include opposition to the criminalization of dissent in criminal code reform, civil liberties abuses in counterterrorism, and mass surveillance. In 1985, a sister non-profit organization, the First Amendment Foundation was created to accept tax deductible donations. The First Amendment Foundation published books and reports by NCARL. When HUAC was abolished in 1975, Representative

Robert F. Drinan Robert Frederick Drinan (November 15, 1920 – January 28, 2007) was a Jesuit priest, lawyer, human rights activist, and Democratic U.S. Representative from Massachusetts. Drinan left office to obey Pope John Paul II's prohibition on political ...

commented that:

“No account of the demise of the House Un-American Activities Committee would be complete without a notation of the extraordinary work done by the National Committee Against Repressive Legislation."

After HUAC was disbanded, NCARL continued to advocate for the eradication of anti-subversive legislation across the federal government, including through the

McCarran-Walter Act The Immigration and Nationality Act of 1952 (), also known as the McCarran–Walter Act, codified under Title 8 of the United States Code (), governs immigration to and citizenship in the United States. It came into effect on June 27, 1952. Before ...

, the Seditious Conspiracy statute, and the Smith Act. Representatives in NCARL testified in front of Congress multiple times in the 1970s and 1980s on issues relating to First Amendment freedoms and whistleblower prosecutions. In 1977, NCARL Washington Coordinator Esther Herst delivered testimony raising concerns that the

Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act The Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act of 1978 ("FISA" , ) is a United States federal law that establishes procedures for the physical and electronic surveillance and the collection of "foreign intelligence information" between "foreign po ...

(FISA) would endanger the privacy of American citizens. NCARL Poster

A few years later, Herst testified against provisions of the Criminal Code Reform Act of 1979 that criminalized pre-crime behaviors and endangered dissent that could be construed under the bill as interfering with the processes of government. Herst also testified at other hearings in the same year about dangers to whistleblowers posed by further revisions to the federal criminal code.''Revision of the Federal Criminal Code: U.S. House of Representatives Subcommittee on Criminal Justice,'' 96th Cong. (1979) (Testimony of Esther Herst) https://books.google.com/books?id=9x_IvS248-UC&dq=NCARL&pg=PA362 She raised the concern that certain provisions in the reform bill would allow the New York Times and Washington Post to be prosecuted for publishing the Pentagon Papers. Paul Hoffman, the vice chairperson of NCARL and the lead attorney in NCARL’s lawsuit against the FBI, testified in hearings relating to the

(FOIA) that the FBI had improperly administered NCARL’s FOIA requests in order to “obscure the true nature and extent of the FBI’s counterintelligence actions against NCARL.”''Freedom of Information Act Oversight: U.S. House of Representatives Subcommittee of the Committee on Government Operations,'' 97th Cong. (1981) (Testimony of Paul Hoffman) https://books.google.com/books?id=5b9ShYs-Sj8C&dq=NCARL&pg=PA728 NCARL alleged that the FBI acted improperly by defaming and discrediting the organization rather than entering into public debate on the merits of the issues at stake. In the 1980s and early 1990s, NCARL had program priorities of ending FBI investigations that threatened First Amendment rights and prohibiting CIA covert action. NCARL advocated for statutory control over the FBI to prevent the agency from undertaking investigations that infringed upon First Amendment-protected activity. The NCARL petition, circulated among law school faculty, contributed to the introduction of the FBI First Amendment Act in 1988. Although the bill was not enacted, provisions from the bill were later included as the Edwards Amendment in the 1994 Violent Crime and Law Enforcement Act. It also published a report on CIA covert operations and participated in the CIA Off Campus campaign. Throughout the 1990s, NCARL and its sister organization, the First Amendment Foundation, worked under the auspices of the National Coalition to Protect Political Freedom (NCPPF) to oppose what they saw as the suspension of

due process Due process of law is application by state of all legal rules and principles pertaining to the case so all legal rights that are owed to the person are respected. Due process balances the power of law of the land and protects the individual pers ...

and revival of McCarthy-era law to profile Muslims and Arab Americans. NCARL also opposed the expansion of FBI authorities under the Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act of 1996. After 9/11, NCARL continued to oppose the profiling of Muslims, overbroad designations of terrorist organizations, use of secret evidence in trial proceedings, use of torture, and the suspension of the right of habeas corpus for Guantanamo Bay detainees.

DDF

In 2007, NCARL was folded into its sister organization First Amendment Foundation, which then changed its name again, to the Defending Dissent Foundation. DDF identifies itself as a member of several

coalition A coalition is a group formed when two or more people or groups temporarily work together to achieve a common goal. The term is most frequently used to denote a formation of power in political or economical spaces. Formation According to ''A Gui ...

s of U.S. advocacy groups:

Alliance for Justice Alliance for Justice (AFJ) is a progressive judicial advocacy group in the United States. Founded in 1979 by former president Nan Aron, AFJ monitors federal judicial appointments. AFJ represents a coalition of 100 politically leftist groups that ...

, Charity and Security Network, Cybersecurity Working Group, D.C. Bill of Rights Committee, Free Expression Network,

Liberty Coalition The Liberty Coalition is a non-profit organization based in Washington, D.C. that connects politically diverse organizations and promotes transpartisan policies related to civil liberties and basic human rights. The Liberty Coalition is associat ...

, OpentheGovernment.org, Rights Working Group, and United for Peace and Justice.

BORDC

The Bill of Rights Defense Committee (BORDC) began in Northampton, MA in the immediate aftermath of the passage of the PATRIOT Act. Attendees at a Women’s Congress for Peace gathering concerned with PATRIOT Act attacks on the First Amendment and Fourth Amendment decided to form an advocacy organization opposing the PATRIOT Act on the local level. BORDC conducted local education, hosted debates about federal policy, and advocated for a city council resolution condemning the PATRIOT Act and instructing law enforcement to avoid infringing upon civil liberties. As a result of this activism, the City of

Northampton Northampton () is a market town and civil parish in the East Midlands of England, on the River Nene, north-west of London and south-east of Birmingham. The county town of Northamptonshire, Northampton is one of the largest towns in England; ...

unanimously passed a city council resolution establishing a “civil liberties safe zone.” Following this success, BORDC became a national organization. On the national stage, BORDC coordinated networks of local groups and provided resources for local activism against the PATRIOT Act. By August 2005, 396 local governments had enacted resolutions. By 2007, eight states (Alaska, California, Colorado, Hawaii, Idaho, Maine, Montana, Vermont) and the District of Columbia had passed state-wide resolutions. According to DRAD, when BORDC became a national organization, it expanded its purview to include advocacy against the expansion of NSA, FBI, CIA, DEA, DHS, and DOJ surveillance authorities. In 2008, BORDC ran the People’s Campaign for the Constitution. As part of the campaign, BORDC ran a paid advertisement in the ''New York Times'' entitled “A Declaration for Our Times,” which was signed by over six hundred people from across the country. Written in the same format as the Declaration of Independence, the document was designed to draw attention to the Bush administration’s secret wiretapping of American citizens, detention of prisoners at Guantanamo Bay, and other policies which, in the view of BORDC, “establish tyranny through false promises of greater security.” Through the 2010s, BORDC continued its strategy of pushing local governments to pass resolutions limiting cooperation between local law enforcement and federal intelligence agencies. In 2011, BORDC successfully pushed Northampton City Council to unanimously pass a resolution withdrawing local enforcement from cooperation with the Secure Communities program, a controversial information sharing initiative used by federal officers conducting immigration enforcement.

DRAD

In 2015, the Defending Dissent Foundation merged with the Bill of Rights Defense Committee to form Defending Rights & Dissent (DRAD). DRAD describes their work as encompassing grassroots organizing, watchdog monitoring, coalition work, and legislative advocacy. According to their website, they defend constitutional rights and confront expansions of the national security state. In recent years, DRAD released a report cataloging FBI surveillance of Black activists, Muslims, protestors at the Republican National Convention,

peace activists This list of peace activists includes people who have proactively advocated diplomatic, philosophical, and non-military resolution of major territorial or ideological disputes through nonviolent means and methods. Peace activists usually work wi ...

, Occupy Wall Street protestors, and

Abolish ICE Abolish ICE is a political movement that seeks the abolition of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). The movement gained mainstream traction in June 2018 following controversy of the Trump administration family separation policy. The m ...

protestors. As summarized in ''The Intercept'', the report concluded that the FBI exhibited political bias in its intelligence operations. DRAD criticized the use of

sting operations In law enforcement, a sting operation is a deceptive operation designed to catch a person attempting to commit a crime. A typical sting will have an undercover law enforcement officer, detective, or co-operative member of the public play a role a ...

and

agents provocateur An agent provocateur () is a person who commits, or who acts to entice another person to commit, an illegal or rash act or falsely implicate them in partaking in an illegal act, so as to ruin the reputation of, or entice legal action against, the ...

and recommended changing the standards for opening FBI assessments, a preliminary form of investigation. DRAD advocates for protections for national security whistleblowers. In particular, DRAD opposes the use of the

1917 Espionage Act The Espionage Act of 1917 is a United States federal law enacted on June 15, 1917, shortly after the United States entered World War I. It has been amended numerous times over the years. It was originally found in Title 50 of the U.S. Code (War ...

to prosecute whistleblowers. The organization has supported bills amending the Espionage Act to better protect journalists and require the government to prove that whistleblowers acted with an intent to harm national security. In 2021, DRAD issued a statement of support for drone whistleblower

Daniel Hale Daniel Everette Hale (born 1987/1988) is an American whistleblower and former National Security Agency (NSA) intelligence analyst who sent classified information about drone warfare to the press. Hale served in the United States Air Force 2009� ...

. The statement was signed by over fifty journalists and nonprofit organizations. In 2022, DRAD's foundation partners included the Craigslist Charitable Fund, CS Fund/Warsh-Mott Legacy,

Stewart R. Mott Stewart Rawlings Mott (December 4, 1937 – June 12, 2008) was an American philanthropist who founded the Stewart R. Mott Foundation. He was the son of Charles Stewart Mott, and appeared on Nixon's Enemies List for his support of liberal causes. ...

Foundation, Victor & Lorraine Honig Fund (Common Counsel Foundation), and Tikva Grassroots Empowerment Fund.

Leadership

NCA-HUAC

Members of the National Committee to Abolish the House Un-American Activities Committee included: * Honorary Chairmen: James Imbrie,

Alexander Meiklejohn Alexander Meiklejohn (; 3 February 1872 – 17 December 1964) was a philosopher, university administrator, educational reformer, and free-speech advocate, best known as president of Amherst College. Background Alexander Meiklejohn was born o ...

Clarence Pickett Clarence Evan Pickett (1884-1965) was an American religious leader, notable 20th century Quaker, and head of a non-governmental, humanitarian relief agency. Background Clarence Evan Pickett was born on October 19, 1884 in Cissna Park, Illinois. ...

* Chairman Emeritus:

Aubrey Willis Williams Aubrey Willis Williams (August 23, 1890 – March 5, 1965) was an American social and civil rights activist who headed the National Youth Administration during the New Deal. Biography Aubrey Williams was born in Springville, Alabama, on August 2 ...

* Chairman:

Harvey O'Connor Harvey O'Connor (29 March 1897 – 29 August 1987) was an American radical journalist, newspaper editor, author, and political activist. The author of nearly a dozen books in his lifetime, O'Connor is best remembered for his activity in the 1 ...

* Vice Chairman:

Dorothy Marshall Dorothy Blanche Louisa Marshall (12 December 1868 – 1966) was a British chemist who worked at Girton, Avery Hill and the National Physical Laboratory. In 1904, she signed a petition for women to be admitted as a Fellow of the Chemical Soc ...

, Sylvia Crane, Charles Jackson, Harry Bernard, Reverence Edward L. Peat * Southern Regional Committee: Carl Braden, John Lewis, Reverend C.T. Vivian, Reverence Wyatt T. Walker * Secretary: Professor Walter S. Vince * Treasurer:

Robert W. Kenny Robert Walker Kenny (August 21, 1901 – July 20, 1976), 21st Attorney General of California (1943-1947), was "a colorful figure in state politics for many years" who in 1946 ran unsuccessfully against Earl Warren for state governor (a race ...

* Executive Director:

DRAD

In 2022, DRAD's Board of Directors included: * President:

Sascha Meinrath Sascha Meinrath is an American policy activist and educator. He is currently the Palmer Chair in Telecommunications at Penn State University. Meinrath founded the Open Technology Institute in 2008 and directed the Institute while also serving as ...

* President Emeritus:

Woody Kaplan The Secular Coalition for America is an advocacy group located in Washington D.C. It describes itself as "representing the interests of atheists, humanists, freethinkers, agnostics, and other nontheistic Americans." The Secular Coalition has c ...

* Clerk: Suraj K. Sazawal * Treasurer: Donald Goldhamer * Vice-Presidents: Emily Berman, Mike Rufo, Fadi Saba * Members: Shannon Al-Wakeel,

Timuel Black Timuel Dixon Black Jr. (December 7, 1918 – October 13, 2021) was an American educator, civil rights activist, historian and author. A native of Alabama, Black was raised in Chicago, Illinois and studied the city's African American history. He w ...

, Shahid Buttar, Patrick Eddington, Arun Gupta,

Victor S. Navasky Victor Saul Navasky (born July 5, 1932) is an American journalist, editor and academic. He is publisher emeritus of ''The Nation'' and George T. Delacorte Professor Emeritus of Professional Practice in Magazine Journalism at Columbia University. H ...

, Azadeh Shahshahani In 2022, DRAD's Staff included: * Sue Udry, Executive Director * Chip Gibbons, Policy Director * Sharisse Lee Lewis, Administrator

Works

DRAD created two podcasts: the Still Spying Podcast and Primary Sources. According to the Still Spying Podcast website, the series examines “the failure to reform the FBI, the FBI’s own war on Black dissent, the FBI’s dual role as both law enforcement and intelligence, and how the issue of political surveillance fits into larger discussions about policing.” The Primary Sources website describes the purpose of the podcast as “explor ngthe challenges faced by whistleblowers, journalists, and other truthtellers who expose abuses committed in the name of “national security.”” On Primary Sources, DRAD Policy Director Chip Gibbons interviewed

Daniel Ellsberg Daniel Ellsberg (born April 7, 1931) is an American political activist, and former United States military analyst. While employed by the RAND Corporation, Ellsberg precipitated a national political controversy in 1971 when he released the ''Pent ...

James Goodale James C. Goodale (born July 27, 1933) was the vice president and general counsel for ''The New York Times'' and, later, the ''Times' '' vice chairman. He is the author of ''Fighting for the Press: the Inside Story of the Pentagon Papers and Ot ...

, Thomas Drake, John Kiriakou,

Michael German Michael German is a retired American FBI agent, scholar, and writer. He is a fellow in the Brennan Center for Justice's Liberty and National Security program. Life During his 16-year career as a Special Agent in the FBI, German spent many mo ...

, Collen Rawley, Jeffrey Sterling, Lisa Ling, Terry Albury, and Jesselyn Raddack, along with several other guests. In 2019, DRAD released the report ''Still Spying on Dissent: The Enduring Problem of FBI First Amendment Abuse''. The report cataloged FBI targeting of political dissent in its assessments, investigations, and surveillance activities. Previously, DRAD released a joint report with the Center for Constitutional Rights entitled ''

Ag-Gag Ag-gag laws are anti-whistleblower laws that apply within the agriculture industry. Popularized by Mark Bittman in an April 2011 ''The New York Times'' column (but used long before then by advocates), the term ''ag-gag'' typically refers to state ...

Across America: Corporate-Backed Attacks on Activists and Whistleblowers'', about the criminalization of investigation into the agricultural industry. DRAD also publishes ''Dissent NewsWire'' and a monthly newsletter.

References

External links

*
Pacific Radio Archives
NCA-HUAC
Guidestar

History

NCA-HUAC

NCARL

DDF

BORDC

DRAD

Leadership

NCA-HUAC

DRAD

Works

References

External links

Further reading